Blinking red lights in place of the usual traffic lights? Darkened street lighting on out-of-the-way cul-de-sacs?

Blame it on the copper thieves.

Vallejo city officials have begun to do exactly that.

For the past month, city workers have churned out their own street signs, telling the public where to point the finger when city lighting goes awry.

"Signal lights are non functioning due to copper wire theft," a sign at the temporarily blinking red signals at Wilson and Daniels avenues reads. The sign has been there for several months, since copper thieves cut out the wires under the set of lights there.

Assistant Maintenance Superintendent Mike Schreiner said a "national epidemic" of stealing and selling copper wiring for profit has spiked in Vallejo in the past several months, pushing the city workforce to its limits to keep up with repairs.

Asked how long it will take to fix the lights at the Wilson-Daniels intersection, Schreiner said, "We try to put (the signs) in intersections we know it's going to be a while until we get there. We do prioritize. Daniels and Wilson is not one of our busiest intersections by any means. I know people hate to hear that -- they all are taxpaying citizens with the streetlights, but if (an outage is) near a school and it's Daylight Savings time, you can understand who would get the priority."

There were some 30 light repairs pending just last week, Vallejo Public Works Director David Kleinschmidt said.

"With our regular workload ... streetlight repairs, old lamps, that type issues, and now, suddenly, we have this huge increase of additional work," Schreiner said, ticking off all the intersection lights malfunctioningcitywide. "You can imagine how quickly we've fallen behind."

Schreiner added that completely blacked-out traffic lights are addressed as quickly as possible, so drivers at least have the flashing red lights to keep cars moving.

"The (intersections) are still safe," Schreiner said. "It's just frustrating for the citizens or the homeowners who live out that way. That's ... why we put the signs out -- we know they're out, there's a reason why they're out, and it's not just that we're ignoring it."

Just getting the flashing red light back on is a time-consuming undertaking, but is comparatively easy to rewiring a complex traffic signal setup, officials said. The Daniels-Wilson Avenue light alone took 20 man-hours to get partially restored," Schreiner said.

Some 77 city lighting fixtures have had their copper wiring stolen since May, and the city has wracked up about a $220,000 bill to replace stolen copper city-wide since January, Schreiner estimated.

For the first time, the Public Works Department will need to approach the Vallejo City Council mid-budget year, seeking to supplement its supply-purchasing account because of all the replacement copper needed, Kleinschmidt said.

City officials said they were also sending a more subtle message with the signs, by informing the public of the problem. Residents can help by calling the police if someone is seen working around city lights and electrical boxes without a city vehicle or wearing reflective vests, Kleinschmidt said.

"Each one of those traffic signals, to repair the damage, ... (copper thieves) probably get less than $25 worth of wire," Kleinschmidt said. "And it sometimes costs up to $20,000 to repair those signals (for manpower and supplies)."